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Inorganic fertilizers are often used in the United States in golf courses putting green maintenance. We used milled plant biomass on putting greens to test the hypothesis that organic biostimulants used in putting green maintenance can achieve similar results as inorganic fertilizers. Dilapidated putting greens, #4 and #14, with conspicuous patches at the L.E. Ramey Golf Course in Kingsville, TX, were selected for the study. Each green was split in half with one half selected for treatment and the other half maintained as the control and treated with NPK. Milled Medicago sativa L. mixed with milled high auxin-containing plant species in a ratio of 10:1 was used to test the hypothesis. The mixture was applied in the bio-treated section of the two greens while the golf course management continued to apply inorganic fertilizers on the control section of the study greens. Patch count on the greens was conducted once a week utilizing a randomly placed 1 by 1 m quadrant. Also, soil moisture measurement was taken twice a week on the greens to understand soil moisture retention due to the treatments. Patch count indicates that the bio-treated sections grew and filled significantly faster than the sections treated with inorganic fertilizers. Regression analysis of data collected between July 13th and July 27th indicates a strong linear biostimulant/patch growth relationship (R2 = 0.75 and 0.92) on Greens #4 and #14 respectively. Also, soil moisture data indicates significantly higher moisture retention on the putting green sections treated with the biostimulant. 

Morphological and anatomical measurements of Solanum lycopersicum L. seedlings grown with diluted seawater in the greenhouse were analyzed to understand the effects of non-conventional water on the growth and development of the species. The salinity of the non-conventional water ranged from 8.15mS/cm to 9.85mS/cm which corresponds to 0.5% to 2.0% seawater (v/v) in freshwater dilution. The results indicate that no significant difference exists in anatomical and morphological growth and development of the species compared to those grown with freshwater. The study concludes that adoption of this type of non-conventional water resource in greenhouse crop production will save between 415,000 to 1,660,000 liters of freshwater for the United States fresh harvest-producing greenhouses per day. It further concludes that the results represent an effective freshwater conservation strategy for the United States and the world at large.